Online versus traditional instruction: Teachers' perspectives on the challenges facing students with disabilities

As the need for virtual instruction increased due to the COVID-19 pandemic, teachers faced changes in the way they had to instruct students. This sudden change impacted the delivery of information by middle school teachers who had been accustomed to the traditional (face-to-face) method of instructing their students with disabilities. This study was designed to explore teachers' perspectives on the challenges facing middle school students with disabilities in a virtual classroom during the COVID-19 pandemic. Three research questions guided the study: (a) What were teachers' perspectives on their preparation to deliver virtual instruction? (b) What strategies were implemented to serve students with disabilities in the virtual classroom?(c) What were teachers' perspectives on the benefits and challenges of virtual instruction for students with disabilities? The researcher used data from a demographic survey and interview questions from 15 special education and regular elementary, middle, and high school teachers of students with disabilities to explore the teachers' perspectives on the transition from traditional instruction to virtual instruction. Three themes evolved: Professional Development/Training in technology and adapting virtual learning to students with disabilities, Strategies to better assist these students in virtual learning, and Challenges and Benefits of teachers' transition from traditional to virtual instruction. The results of this study showed a need for professional training to provide new strategies to assist educators as they transition from traditional to virtual instruction. The study also revealed that teachers faced challenges while instructing students virtually, although teachers acknowledged some benefits. Study implications were that teachers found the transition difficult and encountered many problems with their students not experienced in the traditional classroom. Further research is needed with larger populations to explore teachers' transitions from traditional to virtual instruction, their needs for professional development and training, and means of support for students with disabilities. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

The Impact of COVID: Case Study of an Academic English Reading Course at Qassim University

This paper contributes to the burgeoning field of research investigating the educational effects of COVID. A questionnaire with both open and closed questions was administered to female takers of an Academic English Reading course at a Saudi university, eliciting responses about aspects of the quality of delivery of that course before and after the onset of COVID. From this quantitative and qualitative student evaluation of traditional class teaching (TCT) versus emergency remote teaching (ERT), some findings emerged that echoed those in the few comparable studies in the West. For example, certain features like the greater autonomy of the student in ERT than TCT were liked by some students but not others, while features such as the superiority of teacher-student communication in TCT were more uniformly approved. Furthermore, predictions from the literature such as that favouring TCT would be associated with greater self-efficacy, or a greater perceived degree of transactional interaction between student and teacher were not supported in the context of this study. Analysis of suggestions for ERT improvement leads to the conclusion that, at present, it may be that students need training to exploit the existing ERT, rather than that the ERT to be altered. © 2023 Manal Saleh M. Alghannam.

A Study on the Online VS Traditional Classroom Teaching Styles in Sino-Foreign Cooperative Institutions at Times of COVID 19

The outbreak of Corona Virus Disease 2019 (henceforth COVID-19) has put restrictions on travel and educational exchange. In terms of Sino-Foreign Cooperative Institutions, this pandemic has imposed a strain on normal operation of education process, as foreign teachers hardly have the access to the mainland of China for prevention and control. Thus, these institutions have to rely on online teaching as the only way to maintain teaching work. However, some courses taught online are not effective and cannot fully replace traditional classroom teaching. Therefore, this study target at the largest Sino-Australian cooperative school in Zhejiang Province of China as the research object, and conduct a survey on English teaching delivered by foreign teachers via online and face-to-face methods. Specifically, listening and reading modules are taught online while speaking and writing ones are taught face-to-face. It is found that the combination of these ways performs better from feedback students provide and can almost reach the standard of traditional classroom teaching. © 2023 The authors and IOS Press.

Factors Contributing to the Gap Between Listening and Speaking Skills Performance Among University Students Post COVID-19

The present study explores the improvement in speaking skill as compared to the listening skill in EFL traditional classrooms post COVID-19. In this context, the grades of 168 female students at the intermediate level at the department of English language, faculty of languages and translation, King Khalid University were analyzed. A comparative analysis of the data of both listening and speaking exams was conducted to find out the gap between both skills. The data were gathered then analyzed using the SPSS statistical analysis and Pearson correlation coefficient to determine the relationship between the variables. The results indicated that students’ listening exam grades are better than their speaking grades. The investigations suggest that nonlinguistic factors (i.e. anxiety, stress because of speaking in front of the class, and other psychological fears) significantly affect the students’ speaking skill. The students were also requested to complete a survey about their experiences with traditional speaking sessions and face-to-face speaking exams. The study is both descriptive as well as prescriptive. It describes the current situation of the gap between students’ skills and the nonlinguistic factors resulting in students’ lower grades in speaking as compared to the listening skill. It ends up with suggesting some guidelines to help teachers improve their students’ speaking skill and overcome their fears of face-to-face speaking exams especially after a long period of virtual learning and examination environment. The study provides invaluable insights to make the best possible, data-based recommendations to optimize speaking skill in EFL traditional classrooms. © 2022 ACADEMY PUBLICATION.

Classroom management in the virtual classroom: Educators' perceptions beyond the traditional classroom

Throughout the history of education, effective classroom management has been identified as one of the most important factors impacting student learning. At the commencement of the COVID-19 pandemic, teachers abruptly transitioned from traditional in-class learning to teaching online and implementing strategies to assist in managing their online classrooms efficiently. Teacher perceptions are a valuable resource that may assist others in understanding educational concepts. The three research questions that guided this study were: What strategies are used by elementary educators in the traditional classroom that can be utilized in a virtual setting to effectively manage the classroom environment? How do virtual classroom management strategies differ between experienced and novice elementary teachers? What are the challenges and advantages faced by elementary educators in effectively managing a virtual classroom? This mixed-methods study collected data from 32 elementary educators' regarding their perceptions about managing virtual classrooms. Data collection were conducted in two phases: online surveys and semi-structured interviews with six conveniently chosen participants based on years of teaching experience. The participants identified four themes as key elements of successfully managing a classroom: developing rules, explaining clear expectations, providing incentives, and building relationships. They also shared strategies that could be used in both the traditional and virtual classrooms, and revealed classroom management challenges and advantages in the online classroom. However, the study did not identify significant differences in online classroom management strategies utilized by novice and experienced teachers. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Effect of cognition on e-learners as compared to traditional learners during Covid19

From the past several year's educational institutions at every level was practicing conventional teaching-learning process. It seems to be the only way of imparting education to the learners. However, due to the onset of Coronavirus, i.e., Covid19, everything came to a halt for a while all over the world. The complete ecosystem of human society gets affected by this. Educational institutions also hit hard by this pandemic, and the complete layout of the teaching-learning process over the globe changed. It brings challenges for both students and teachers to withstand in this tough situation and to restore the backbone of learning. E-learning activities slowly-slowly gripped the complete educational ecosystem and the way of imparting education also changed. The primary purpose of this study is to examine the level of cognition faced by e-learners as compared to traditional learners at higher education level during Covid19. For this study, 120 students from Chitkara University have voluntarily participated and submitted their responses through the Google Form. It deduces from this study that learners using E-learning mode feel more cognitive load as compared to traditional learners. The cohen's d-value which represents the effect size comes to be 0.97 which means that the effect of cognitive load is significantly large on e-learners than the traditional learners. In the future, the reasons behind the rise of the cognition level of e-learners need to evaluate and improve the learning gain of e-learners. © 2022 Author(s).

Investigating TVET college educators’ experiences while transitioning from the traditional classroom to the virtual classroom during the COVID-19 pandemic

The growing utilisation of digital technologies in today’s complex and fast-changing world has taken the reality of education beyond the physical classroom. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has forced many educational institutions to make hasty and unprecedented decisions as they switched to the virtual classroom. This study explores teachers’ experiences in transitioning from traditional teaching to virtual teaching during and after the COVID-19 college closure. A sample of seven Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) educators was conveniently selected from colleges in an urban area in South Africa using a case study research design. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and analysed using thematic analysis. In this regard, all ethical considerations were adhered to during this study. Three of the educators demonstrated a positive cognitive, affective and behavioural attitude towards transitioning to virtual learning. Six of the educators used WhatsApp and online platforms integrated into their college’s website to communicate during virtual teaching. However, challenges such as lack of support on the integration of technology into their practice, access to connectivity, provision of little or no training on pedagogical practices, unconducive home environment, students’ attitudes in the online space, lack of infrastructure and poor policy guidelines and framework for implementing virtual learning pose a threat to educators’ desires to change and support a transition to virtual learning permanently. Therefore, it is recommended that TVET education providers and managers provide adequate support and training for educators to foster pedagogical practices aimed at enhancing students’ virtual learning. © 2022 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved.

Effect of flipped classroom model on academic achievement, academic satisfaction and general belongingness

The effect of the flipped classroom model on students' academic achievement, academic satisfaction, and general belongingness was investigated using an experimental design. Purposive sampling was used to select 94 undergraduate students as participants. The participants were divided into three groups: one experimental group with the flipped classroom model and two control groups with the traditional classroom and distance education models. The groups attended the same course content sessions that are suitable for their classroom model over eight weeks. For analysis, descriptive statistics, dependent groups t-tests, Wilcoxon signed-rank test, ANCOVA, and ANOVA tests were performed. Students' academic achievement, academic satisfaction, and general belongingness levels significantly increased in the flipped classroom compared with the other classroom models. Suggestions for future research and limitations of the study are provided.

Teachers' emotional intelligence and well-being in online and traditional classroom environments

The purpose of this quantitative, correlational study was to investigate if and to what extent a statistically significant relationship exists between teachers' self-reported emotional intelligence behaviors and their self-reported well-being within an online environment and within a traditional classroom environment, for elementary teachers in the United States. A positive psychology approach was applied with a foundation of the PERMA model of well-being and the ability model of emotional intelligence to address the research questions. The sample included 123 elementary teachers of grades K-8 in the U.S. that have experience teaching in both online and traditional classroom environments. Data was collected via online survey in April 2021, during COVID-19 vaccination distribution in the U.S., but while many schools were still closed and operating under emergency remote learning models. A Pearson's product-moment correlation was used to analyze the data, and the results revealed a statistically significant, positive relationship between both pairs of variables: between online emotional intelligence behaviors and online well-being with a Pearson's r= .62 and a significance of p< .001, and between traditional classroom emotional intelligence behaviors and traditional classroom well-being, with a Pearson's r= .63 and a significance of p< .001. The findings show a strong, positive relationship exists between the variables, even during the stressful time of the COVID-19 pandemic. Implications and recommendations for further research are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Multimodal active learning methods for biological psychology

Historically, students struggle with biological psychology content and many educators have implemented active learning methods to increase student understanding of difficult topics. However, the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 has raised challenges of moving these activities to an online environment. This chapter discusses learning activities appropriate for undergraduate courses that cover a broad range of topics such as neurons, action potential, neuroanatomy, brain functions, sensation and perception and psychophysics. A panel of faculty who have previously taught these topics online presented several ways to effectively teach these sometimes-difficult topics that would benefit student learning in both the traditional classroom and the online modality. While all anticipates the instruction to be once again is in the classroom, having alternatives to the traditional classroom can increase accessibility and options for engagement in complex and often difficult content. Lastly, it opens the floor for contributions from the audience, for things that worked best for them and things that they may want to troubleshoot for future courses. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)